All MPs agree that duck houses are out. But they believe the new expenses body fails to understand their needs. Photograph: PA

The summer holidays are just about in sight and exhausted MPs, who have not recovered from the general election, are dreaming of Greek beaches.

But one topic is dominating conversations in the bars and tearooms of Westminster above holiday fantasies: the hated Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which monitors MPs' expenses.

A startling figure is doing the rounds at Westminster. Senior figures are saying that around 200 MPs are not bothering to make expenses claims because the rules are so complicated and take up too much of their time.

Some of these MPs have tried to make claims but have now given up. Others have not even bothered.

Tory MPs are wondering whether Liam Fox will be one of the first Tories to resign from the cabinet. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Conservative MPs who lost out on ministerial jobs, after toiling on the frontbench during the hard years of opposition, are whiling away the hot summer months with a new game. In the bars and tearooms of Westminster they are placing bets on who will be the next minister to resign from the cabinet.

The game was disrupted when David Laws resigned as treasury chief secretary over his expenses. "I was most disappointed when David Laws resigned," one former frontbencher said. "It meant that I lost my bet that Iain Duncan Smith would be the the first minister to resign."

The government is expected today to make its long awaited announcement of a Judge led inquiry or commission into allegations of British complicity in the use of torture. Indeed the government's need to make the statement tomorrow forced Nick Clegg the deputy prime minister to bring forward his own statement on constitutional reform to today